What's New at Duke University Press

May 2011

May 27, 2011

This week we've been hobnobbing with other publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors, and media at the annual Book Expo America in New York City. Our marketing team has been pitching our Fall 2011 books and meeting with various vendors who manage our metadata and help us get our books out into the world electronically. We also meet with some of our sales representatives and enjoy catching up with our favorite booksellers. The New York Times reports on the convention here, saying "there is a Wild West quality to the book business these days." Academic publishing moves more slowly than commercial publishing, but we do feel like we have a lot to figure out about our future, and it's good to connect with the rest of the industry once a year and see where we stand. Below, you can see some of the general interest highlights from our Fall catalog that we were featuring in our booth.

The arrest of Ratko Mladic demonstrates how far the world community has moved from providing warlords and tyrants with golden parachutes. The arrest of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarek and the indictment of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi provide further evidence of the degree to which accountability for crimes by the powerful has taken root. Mubarek will stand trial in Egypt before an Egyptian court. Gaddafi has been indicted by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, an indictment that must be confirmed by a trial chamber of the ICC before an arrest can be made, which at this point is not imminent as Gaddafi remains in power.

International war crimes trials are far more complex than domestic criminal trials. As a result, they take longer. Show trials such as Josef Stalin favored are speedy but do not bring justice. The public’s and especially victims’ frustration with lengthy trials is understandable, and trials need not drag on for over four years as the Milosevic trial did, ultimately robbing victims of a verdict. Milosevic was an ill man when he came to The Hague. His illness combined with the tribunal allowing him to represent himself were largely responsible for the trial’s length. One hopes that international courts have learned from these mistakes. With Mladic’s arrest they have another chance to get it right.

Judith Armatta is available for interviews. Please contact Publicist Laura Sell at lsell@dukeupress.edu for more information.

May 25, 2011

"The Other Effect,” the most recent issue of differences, is a tribute to the late scholar, Dicle Koğacioğlu, and her work. The issue includes articles by Timothy Bewes, Lila Abu-Lughod, Ayse Parla, Leti Volpp, Z. Umut Turem, Elizabeth Polvinelli, and Koğacioğlu herself, with important new article on honor crimes, focused upon what she called the making of “the custom.”

Leti Volpp, Professor at the University of California-Berkeley School of Law, reflects on Koğacioğlu’s life and work:

The legal sociologist Dicle Koğacioğlu was a brilliant scholar and feminist activist whose work on power, modernity, and bureaucratic forms of authority influenced many during her brief life. Her work was deeply original, passionate, and critical, and spoke simultaneously to particular questions within Turkey and to broad theoretical debates. A primary thread of Koğacioğlu’s writing, examined in complex contexts ranging from honor crimes, constitutional courts, to access to justice, was how public discourse on tradition always creates an “other.” Her much cited article, “The Tradition Effect: Framing Honor Crimes in Turkey,” differences (2004), responded to a perceived increase in documentation of honor killings in Turkey by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to show how these crimes are produced in relation to institutional practices and discourses of modern government. Koğacioğlu argued that these institutions -- the Turkish state, Islamic parties, European Union, and the international media -- imagined as modern and standing outside of or in opposition to tradition, see tradition as an object of technical intervention, delimiting the universe of meaning through which these crimes can be understood, and removing attention from the way in which these very institutions participate in perpetuating these crimes. Her article “Progress, Unity, and Democracy: Dissolving Political Parties in Turkey” in Law and Society (2004) examined the dissolution of Islamic and pro-Kurdish political parties by the Turkish Constitutional Court, assigned the task of dissolving anti-constitutional political parties. Here Koğacioğlu showed that an arbitrary boundary between political and cultural domains was drawn by the Court, a boundary then used by the Court in the service of justifying its decision, as what may be harmless when an issue is cultural (use of the headscarf, the Kurdish language) may turn into a political symbol threatening the basis of the united, democratic, and progressive nation-state. Koğacioğlu also published several works about access to justice in Turkey, looking in particular at interactions between citizens and legal authorities in the courthouse, the axes of power (class, gender) that operate in the legal system, as well as the negotiations by the disempowered who strategize within it. At the time of her death, she was conducting research on Turkey’s justice system which promised to redefine the parameters of law and society scholarship in Turkey. Her death is a stunning loss to feminist theory, to sociolegal scholarship, and to her many friends.

May 24, 2011

We're excited that our books are available electronically in many formats. Check out the one that works best for you!

You can buy Kindle versions of many of our books on Amazon.com. And Duke students, staff, and faculty can check out a Kindle pre-loaded with some of our titles by Duke professors from the Duke libraries!

May 23, 2011

Last week Duke University Press threw a great party to celebrate the launch of the second edition of Jean Bradley Anderson's landmark local history Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina. Attending the party were local media, Durham notables, and some of the generous supporters of the book. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Brenda and Keith Brodie, Steve and Edie Cohn, Duke Photography, Tom and Kim Miller, Duke University's Office of Durham and Regional Affairs, Nancy Schiebel, and Measurement Incorporated. Without these and other donors, we would have been unable to produce such a beautiful and high quality volume. We also thank Jim Wise of the News and Observer and Kevin Davis, of Bull City Rising, who provided us with wonderful cover endorsements. Read more about Anderson and the book in this profile in the Durham Herald-Sun. Then check out photos from the fun party, planned by Development Coordinator Bonnie Perkel. Thanks to Amanda Sharp and Emily Young for taking pictures!

Delicious regional treats from Durham Catering Company.

Former Duke University President Keith Brodie and Duke University Press Director Steve Cohn.

May 19, 2011

Duke University Press mourns the death of Peruvian anthropologist Carlos Iván Degregori, co-editor (with Robin Kirk and Orrin Starn) of The Peru Reader, the first book in our popular series The Latin America Readers. He died in Peru after a long illness, according to The Peruvian Times. Degregori was one of Peru's most important intellectuals and served as a member of the 2001-2003 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He wrote frequently in both Spanish and English and contributed a chapter to Steve Stern's Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980-1995 as well as to many other books on Peruvian history, culture and politics. Friend and colleague Robin Kirk says, "Degregori was a mentor to hundreds of American academics and human rights activists, and as a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission brought a humility, generosity and grace to every proceeding he was a part of." We are grateful for his contributions to scholarship.

With the release of the Congressional report "America's Climate Choices," this week as well as the retraction of a much-cited scholarly critique of global warming, many environmentalists are hoping we can finally end the "debate" about climate change. The report, undertaken at Congress's behest by the National Research Council, begins by clearly stating what it sees as the facts:

"Climate change is occurring, is very likely caused primarily by the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, and poses significant risks for a range of human and natural systems. Emissions continue to increase, which will result in further change and greater risks. Responding to these risks is a crucial challenge facing the United States and the world today and for many decades to come."

This is much the way that Orrin H. Pilkey and Keith C. Pilkey begin their important new book Global Climate Change: A Primer. They start with the premise that "global climate change is upon us. Of this there is no doubt among those who observe the Earth." Their book aims to give clear, straightforward information about climate change to students and general readers, so they can understand the challenges facing us and confront them appropriately. In response to the report Orrin H. Pilkey says, "Sea level rise can be seen as an opportunity and a challenge to redesign with nature. But if our society fails to accept the latest congressional report and other documents like it we will, instead of planning, respond to global changes as emergency disasters." We hope many will educate themselves and their leaders by reading this crucial new book.

May 16, 2011

Check out our latest author interview video! John P. Bowles, author of Adrian Piper: Race, Gender, and Embodiment (2011), explains why he chose to study Adrian Piper's work and shares insight into some of her most powerful pieces.

Adrian Piper is an in-depth analysis of Adrian Piper’s work, illustrated with more than ninety images, including twenty-one in color.